The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-01-14
Railroad Pools.

Railroad Pools.
To the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journal:
The magnitude of this and other evils of
similar character shows that more thorough
discussion of this subject is needed. These
roads are the great highways of commerce, and
intimately identified with the prosperity OF the
people. There is no class of our citizens whose
material welfare is SO much at the mercy OF
these railroads as that OF the farmers. They
should, therefore, look well to it, that these
roads be not perverted from their original de-
sign, and made the instruments Of gain and
private emolument; in other words that a few
individuals shall not make them an engine for
amassing colossal fortunes at the expense of the
public. These roads mark the progress Of our
civilization. They are blessings, but their
blessings should not be marred by the spirit OF
monopoly
! Till the millennial age shall come we must
accept competition as the basis of society. The
Socialists can give many good reasons why COM
/ petition should not exist but are not yet tit
| for that state of society. Besides, railroad men
are not supposed to favor socialism, whatever
| they may think about competition. In this
| age we consider competition as bringing
| products and services nearer their actual cost
| than any other known device. Why, then,
! should railroads, any more than the balance of
| the world, be exempt from this test2 They set
| up the plea that capital will be ruined by CON-
petition. This is pitiful plea, set up by sharp
| men controlling vast millions of capital There
was small combination here in Terre Haute,
some thirty Eve years since-(all are probably
now in their eravesl 1t was be-
tween pork-packers. They entered in
to written agreement to pay
a certain price for hogs and no more The
agreement vas placed in the hands of a person
now living in this city. The packers met from
to time and reported no hogs bought. Suddenly
| large droves of hogs were coming into the
m
| made their way to the pens of one of the signers
Of the agreement Another meeting was called.
| but the packer whose pens were SO full of hogs
| was too busy to attend the meeting; the others
compared notes; mono of them had bought any
| hogs they gave look at each other and broke
for the tall timber. the season closed with a
large advance on the few remaining lots of un-
u sold hogs The price opened at 81 90 az %, and
closed at about 81 90 per 100 Tbs net The
shrewder operator made snug little sum of
money for those days-say $4,000. Iremember
to have congratulated him one evening at O So
cial party on the success of his operations. He
chuckled YES" says he, ''the boys don't un-
derstand it" did not know Of the agreement
| at the time.
Let us pause here. This little operation con
tains the essence of all like combinations. Its
first effect was to depress the price of hogs
which enabled the shrewd operator by small
advance on the price fixed in the agreement, te
monopolize the bulk of the hogs at low figure
The larger part of the money this operator put
into ms pocket. should and would, on the princi
Piles of fair have gone to the farmers who
in turn, would produce more largely The ensuing
| year, and pay their help with their own money
!, without being under the necessity of borrowing
from the operator. Could this money have
flowed in its proper channel, its benign influence
would have been felt throughout the whole in
/ terlaced network of society.
/ This was q small operation compared with thu
millions now drawn from the pockets of tn,
r workers to fill the Golfers of few The sim
. pie agreement of few pork buyers is now en-
larged to a volume of the most astute literature
You say we don't understand those combina
tons. Whose fault is it9 You meet with CLOSED
doors, and when you have concluded your ar
rangement, you fold mp your agreement and pu
1t in the eafe You don't send the paper to pres
+ / for publication. Before you reproach us witt
our ignorance in these matters give tn
! Alpha and Omega Of these agreements. We un
derstand the great trouble has been to make
binding arrangement Let us see little Of thl
| curious literature.
: observe in the bill the words ''reasonabl
rates" Who Is to determine that question: O
= the one hand there are shrewd, persistent an
n interested men; on the other hand men withou
4 any such persistent interest, perhaps partly il
different. Can there be any doubt that the rate
will be fixed just as high they possibly ca
be, without their being positively unreasonable
How, then, will we avoid unreasonable rates
Very easily. Where there are competitive line.
impose penalties against these pooling arrang,
ments; appoint al able prosecuting alto
ney to specially attend to all such bu
e mess; let the Legislatures Of the SCI
- eral States do the same. We have live
l. through considerable period of ups and down
r in railroad management, and can afford to ava
the simple law here indicated. The statute
frauds and perjuries, said to have been drafts
10 by Chief-justics Hale, cost vast sums of more
before its judicial Interpretation established
"a We want no such law the bin before Co,
gress. Our courts sufficient.
le c. W. BARBOUR